Why Matt Rhule says Nebraska’s receivers could ‘absolutely murder you’ in 2024

Garret McGuire sends his receivers the clip often. A motivational match for the pilot light.

It’s from FS1’s broadcast of Nebraska’s 20-17 loss at Michigan State, a team that had dropped six straight games before meeting the Huskers. During the game, McGuire said, analysts noted NU receivers’ struggles to shake free of MSU’s tight defensive coverage.

“It drives those guys,” McGuire said of his corps when they see the clip.

The Huskers completed just 12 of 28 passes that day for 4.6 yards per attempt. They rushed for 148 and passed for just 129 in what began a four-game losing streak that kept the team home from a bowl.

A low moment in a learning season for NU’s young, inexperienced receivers. A trial-by-Big-Ten-fire for McGuire, one of college football’s youngest assistants. A test for McGuire’s boss, Nebraska coach Matt Rhule.

And, ultimately, a bridge to a better future, McGuire said. While it hurt to lose one receiver before last season and two more early in the season, 2023 forced McGuire to coach up freshmen Jaylen Lloyd and Malachi Coleman. And it also opened his eyes to Nebraska’s need for big, tough receivers out of the transfer portal.

Now, in late June, McGuire is excited about his room. Rhule calls the wideouts “one of our stronger positions’ and McGuire — quick to praise other parts of the offense — nevertheless agrees.

“Man, we are deep,” McGuire said. “I’m comfortable putting freakin’ nine, 10 guys out there. All 10 guys can play multiple positions, too. We really couldn’t have said that last year.”

It matters because most top college football teams — however well they run the ball — throw for yards and touchdowns to win big. The 12 teams in “New Year’s Six” bowl games last year — including the four College Football Playoff teams — threw for an average of 267.3 yards per game 29.2 touchdowns per season, nearly double Nebraska’s production of 135.9 yards and 16 touchdowns.

Body blows? NU landed them in the run game, ranking 39^th nationally in yards per game and 13^th in fourth-quarter yards per carry.  

Pass plays are jabs and uppercuts. Too often, the Huskers missed.

Defenses keeping both safeties deep — the preferred scheme of former Nebraska coach Bo Pelini — were vulnerable to NU’s approach. Once foes dropped a safety into the box, or brought run blitzes, the Huskers struggled to pass, and their quarterback runs paid out increasingly diminishing returns due to injuries and fumbles.

“If you try to play ‘one high’ or you try to zone pressure us,” Rhule said, “we’re going to absolutely murder you — and you need players to do that.”

That’s the plan, anyway, likely with freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola.

Here are the wideout parts.  

* Nebraska has added big-bodied, experienced transfers in Jahmal Banks (6-4, 205) and Isaiah Neyor (6-3, 215) to help the team on third down and in the red zone. McGuire also loves the addition of Janiran Bonner (6-2, 220) from the fullback spot. Those three, plus the tight ends, can catch or block in a revamped quick passing game that gets the ball out of the quarterback’s hands into that of receivers on quick, sideways screens.

“With these quarterbacks, that’s a long handoff,” McGuire said.

* NU attracted a large group of exciting freshmen, including Jacory Barney, who had a spring game touchdown grab, Quinn Clark, Keelan Smith and Bellevue West graduates Dae’vonn Hall and Isaiah McMorris.

* Alex Bullock, Lloyd and Coleman all return, as well. That trio combined for 21 catches, 597 yards and five touchdowns in 2023.

None had relevant experience before last season. Forced into action by departures and adversity, they grew up in a hurry. Coleman and Lloyd, McGuire joked, were taking classes at Lincoln East and Omaha Westside last spring, headed for likely redshirts.

Until Betts left. And Jaidyn Doss — now at cornerback — hurt his hand in training camp. And Joshua Fleeks arrived to camp with a build and weight better suited to running back. And Garcia-Castaneda and Washington blew out their knees in games one and five. The team’s leading receiver, Billy Kemp, battled injuries, too.

That left McGuire, then 24, shifting on the fly.

“It taught me patience as a coach, that, not every Tuesday is going to look like the Tuesdays that you want, because they’re 18 and not 21, 22, 23 years old,” McGuire said. “Not every Wednesday, either. So the patience of coaching in practice. And they got better each week.”

Bullock, a third-year sophomore out of Creighton Prep, started eight games and caught on quickly. Lloyd’s top-end speed popped off the screen after NU’s bye week, leading to long, stunning touchdowns against Purdue, Wisconsin and Iowa. Coleman became one of the team’s better blockers and a deep threat.  

But tight coverage? Always a problem. McGuire teaches receivers to beat defensive backs at three different spots during a route: At the line of scrimmage; at the top, or the finishing part, of the route; and at the “catch point” when the ball is about to arrive. To some degree, the first and third parts take physicality and good hands technique. The Big Ten defenses make receivers work hard to get and stay open.

“It’s just a big league, and there’s really good football coaches who can kind of undress you on a Saturday if you’re not ready and don’t have answers,” McGuire said. “If you’re not constantly, after each drive, evaluating and changing the picture of what you’re doing.”

Rhule watched McGuire and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield adjusted to the team’s limitations. Rhule concedes it’s “no big headline” that the offense struggled, averaging 15.4 points in league play. The coach preferred to see how McGuire and Satterfield navigated the receiver and quarterback issues.

“I’m watching them triage through the year — what an unbelievable job they’re doing,” Rhule said. “The results don’t say that, but that’s why you have to have guts to have this job. I could’ve started over, but, instead, I saw the development of Malachi last year, I saw the development of Jaidyn and I saw the development of Jaylen.”

McGuire was also frank about the team’s need for bigger receivers. Kemp’s 5-9, 180-pound frame got pinballed about, and he often got lost in middle-the-field routes against 6-2 safeties. He made two red zone catches all season – one as a running back.

So they pursued Banks from Wake Forest and, from Texas, Neyor, who played sparingly for the Longhorns but had a key Husker connection in Mitch Cholewinski, who served as Neyor’s “return to play” trainer. Cholewinski vouched for Neyor, whose high school coach also had a strong friendship with McGuire.

“We wanted big receivers who had played college football who are unbelievable men, on and off the field, who can set a standard for that room,” McGuire said. “Isaiah and Jahmal, do that at an extremely high level.”

NU is deep enough now that it can absorb the one season-ending injury it sustained in the spring game when redshirt freshman Demitrius Bell tore up his knee. He would’ve vied for playing time and perhaps even started.

In 2024, Nebraska has plenty of options beyond Bell. Enough to get Rhule a little fired up for his young receivers coach.

“I remember when I was hired, people were like ‘Well, how’s he going to recruit?’ He’s recruitin’ pretty well and he does a great job in that room,” Rhule said. “When you’re in that room, you have to deal with a lot of different personalities of guys who want to play and have the ball. But he can also build a brotherhood.”

Even if a took a tough, long year full of questions and adversity.

“I think last year’s lesson,” McGuire said, “is the biggest blessing in disguise for our program.”